UConn versus the NFL

[Palatine]

The NFL just finished a 250+ game regular season with no bubble and no missed games. They had to be smart and flexible to do it. But do it -they did. The Ravens that had many cases still made the playoffs. Same with the Browns.

UConn didn't play a single snap. Almost every other college team played, at least, a few games. Almost every other team had cases of COVID. Northwestern University had ZERO cases during the season. To be fair they had a couple of positive tests in preseason but none after play started.

It has been a difficult season for sure. But I feel my alma mater overreacted. And they did this partly because they acted too soon. Opinions, as the great Patrick Swayze said in his opus, Road House, vary. At this point, the most meaningful question is whether it helped or hurt the program. Like most things associated with COVID, the answer is likely a muddle. Who in this mother loving world knows?

All signs point to a more normal 2021 college football season. Looking very forward to that. But UConn's decision to cancel will be debated a long time. Did we really need to be the most extreme university in the country? In a week or month I hope we are back to football topics. Go Huskies.

 

[huskyblooz]

The positive is that some of our young 270lb big uglies can get up past 290 and our 210lb LB's can get up to the 230 range.

 

[pepband99]

The NFL just finished a 250+ game regular season with no bubble and no missed games. They had to be smart and flexible to do it. But do it -they did. The Ravens that had many cases still made the playoffs. Same with the Browns.

UConn didn't play a single snap. Almost every other college team played, at least, a few games. Almost every other team had cases of COVID. Northwestern University had ZERO cases during the season. To be fair they had a couple of positive tests in preseason but none after play started.

It has been a difficult season for sure. But I feel my alma mater overreacted. And they did this partly because they acted too soon. Opinions, as the great Patrick Swayze said in his opus, Road House, vary. At this point, the most meaningful question is whether it helped or hurt the program. Like most things associated with COVID, the answer is likely a muddle. Who in this mother loving world knows?

All signs point to a more normal 2021 college football season. Looking very forward to that. But UConn's decision to cancel will be debated a long time. Did we really need to be the most extreme university in the country? In a week or month I hope we are back to football topics. Go Huskies.

Horrible take, comparing apples to oranges with the NFL, and completely missing the root cause of our cancelation (scheduling). Par for the course, though...

 

[DoctorWho85]

The NFL just finished a 250+ game regular season with no bubble and no missed games. They had to be smart and flexible to do it. But do it -they did. The Ravens that had many cases still made the playoffs. Same with the Browns.

UConn didn't play a single snap. Almost every other college team played, at least, a few games. Almost every other team had cases of COVID. Northwestern University had ZERO cases during the season. To be fair they had a couple of positive tests in preseason but none after play started.

It has been a difficult season for sure. But I feel my alma mater overreacted. And they did this partly because they acted too soon. Opinions, as the great Patrick Swayze said in his opus, Road House, vary. At this point, the most meaningful question is whether it helped or hurt the program. Like most things associated with COVID, the answer is likely a muddle. Who in this mother loving world knows?

All signs point to a more normal 2021 college football season. Looking very forward to that. But UConn's decision to cancel will be debated a long time. Did we really need to be the most extreme university in the country? In a week or month I hope we are back to football topics. Go Huskies.

And who exactly was UConn going to play? UMass and Army twice? Because there was zero opportunity to play any other schools as it was all in conference play only.

 

[How Sway?!]

Yes, compare a multi billion dollar business made up of professionals making 7 figures that can test often and can easily schedule games to a public university on a budget crunch made up of amateurs without any guaranteed games. Makes absolute sense.

 

[Palatine]

Horrible take, comparing apples to oranges with the NFL, and completely missing the root cause of our cancelation (scheduling). Par for the course, though...

You must of missed the part where I posted abbout the rest of college foottball. That's okay, lots of people only read the titles. But I did address oranges to oranges.

 

[pepband99]

You must of missed the part where I posted abbout the rest of college foottball. That's okay, lots of people only read the titles. But I did address oranges to oranges.

The rest of college football, essentially, had a conference to get games for them. And, they also cancelled a third (or more) of their season, upfront (including almost every chance for us to get games). You continue to ignore this.

 

[Kolumbo]

And who exactly was UConn going to play? UMass and Army twice? Because there was zero opportunity to play any other schools as it was all in conference play only.

UMass, Army, Liberty and East Tenn State, and they probably could have found 1 or 2 other games.

 

[pepband99]

UMass, Army, Liberty and East Tenn State, and they probably could have found 1 or 2 other games.

Yeah, I'm sure the CT DPH would have let Liberty and ETSU trips happen.

UMASS got 4 away games, and lost money and pride doing so. That's our bar. UMASS couldn't even get a game with in-state BCU, which is a luxury we don't have. 4 would have been a struggle for us.

Notre Dame ran straight to the ACC, which has been verboten forever. That should tell you all you need to know about the scheduling situation this year.

 

[Kolumbo]

Yeah, I'm sure the CT DPH would have let Liberty and ETSU trips happen.

UMASS got 4 away games, and lost money and pride doing so. That's our bar. UMASS couldn't even get a game with in-state BCU, which is a luxury we don't have. 4 would have been a struggle for us.

Notre Dame ran straight to the ACC, which has been verboten forever. That should tell you all you need to know about the scheduling situation this year.

We know what the CT DPH did and we know what UConn Football did. He asked who we could have played besides Army and UMass, and those 4 programs were already coming to The Rent. BCU is in the ACC so that was never an option for UMass.

 

[pepband99]

We know what the CT DPH did and we know what UConn Football did. He asked who we could have played besides Army and UMass, and those 4 programs were already coming to The Rent. BCU is in the ACC so that was never an option for UMass.

Sigh - this isn't that hard.

UMASS cancelled their games upfront. They reneged later on, but this is revisionist history. (again, remember we're talking about the cancelation of the whole season here). Could we have rescheduled? Almost certainly, so that's 1 game.

Army most likely game played - that's 2.

maybe Liberty grants us a game - like UMASS, but we would have been subject to a quarantine either way. Maybe a 2nd, but Liberty filled up quick, and the quarantine likely would have weighed, if not made this unreasonable.

MTSU (oops) ended up ending their season early, but don't tell @Palatine (since only UConn cancelled games, apparently). Even if we get a game, it would likely have been cancelled anyway (either directly or by quarantine).

That's 4 games, with 2 in peril to start. Trust me - i would have loved a Rent Saturday as much as anyone, but the games just weren't out there. We lost out on a combination of geography, conference, and possibly overly-cautious safety concerns. Nothing to be ashamed of, though.

 

[Kolumbo]

Sigh - this isn't that hard.

UMASS cancelled their games upfront. They reneged later on, but this is revisionist history. (again, remember we're talking about the cancelation of the whole season here). Could we have rescheduled? Almost certainly, so that's 1 game.

Army most likely game played - that's 2.

maybe Liberty grants us a game - like UMASS, but we would have been subject to a quarantine either way. Maybe a 2nd, but Liberty filled up quick, and the quarantine likely would have weighed, if not made this unreasonable.

MTSU (oops) ended up ending their season early, but don't tell @Palatine (since only UConn cancelled games, apparently). Even if we get a game, it would likely have been cancelled anyway (either directly or by quarantine).

That's 4 games, with 2 in peril to start. Trust me - i would have loved a Rent Saturday as much as anyone, but the games just weren't out there. We lost out on a combination of geography, conference, and possibly overly-cautious safety concerns. Nothing to be ashamed of, though.

Well, we basically agree. My only point was that UConn could have played more than two games if it wanted to and of course the variables are the timing of the decisions and the decisions themselves. MTSU's last game was on 11/21, our original slot. Obviously everything played out the way it played out but it could have been different.

"After recent cancellations by both the ACC and UConn left Middle Tennessee State without three of its four nonconference football games for 2020, the Blue Raiders now have a replacement for at least two of those openings. MTSU athletics director Chris Massaro announced on a Zoom teleconference Thursday that the school and Troy plan to play twice in 2020, though no contract has been signed."